I knew Colin Kaepernick was in trouble when, in response to criticism that he should develop more of a “pocket presence,” he reached out to Kurt Warner over the summer for help in becoming a better pocket passer.

No disrespect to Warner, who played 12 N.F.L. seasons and led St. Louis to a Super Bowl title and Arizona to its first Super Bowl appearance. But Kaepernick’s pocket presence is not what kept defensive coordinators awake at night trying to plan for his special gifts.

That is not who Kaepernick is. Not who he will ever be. Not why he was catapulted to fame in his second season, when he came off the bench in relief of Alex Smith and led San Francisco to the Super Bowl.

On Sunday, a national audience saw flashes of the old Kaepernick and — for 49ers fans at least — a hopeful glimpse of the new. He ran for a couple of first downs, threw two passes for touchdowns and was 22 of 33. Kaepernick did what quarterbacks, whether they play in the pocket or out, are supposed to do: He distributed.

After the Giants took a 23-20 lead late in the fourth quarter, Kaepernick led the 49ers on an 80-yard scoring drive that gave the 49ers a chance, although the Giants pulled it out with just over a minute left to win by 30-27.

Now, in his fourth year as a starter, his fifth in the league, Kaepernick has seen defenses adjust and the hounds descend. Just as they descended on Cleveland’s Johnny Manziel, as they descended on Washington’s Robert Griffin III and as they are about to descend on Indianapolis’s Andrew Luck if he does not pull it together.

Griffin, Manziel and Luck, however, have different issues from those facing Kaepernick. No one is pressuring them to change how they play the game. They suffer, instead, from a variation of too much too soon. This is increasingly a plague within the universe of youth sports, a culture that picks, and praises, athletes before their time, before they have even had a chance to truly excel under pressure.

Identifying young talent is common in sports, which, almost by definition, are a young person’s pursuit. But the process keeps intensifying, keeps digging deeper, as the sports industry becomes more lucrative and a pro sports career — like a mirage — seems so tantalizingly close that you can taste it.

Manziel was given way too much too soon, in high school and certainly in college, where his boorish behavior was indulged as the university built a program on his arm. Manziel ultimately sought treatment for alcohol addiction when his behavior jeopardized his pro career.

Griffin came into the N.F.L. riding a wave of hype and was handed the starting quarterback’s job in Washington. He was taken into the owner’s box — figuratively and literally — and was given the keys to the kingdom before he was ready. Now Griffin, who suffered a career-altering knee injury in 2013, is close to being exiled.

Influential voices within the sports media establishment put Luck on the same plane as Denver’s Peyton Manning, New England’s Tom Brady and Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers before he completed his first N.F.L. season.

Kaepernick’s problem is not having received too much too soon, and then having trouble dealing with it. His challenge is shutting out the voices chirping in his ear, the voices pressuring him to change the style of play that catapulted him to stardom, pressuring him to change the dynamism that distinguishes him and Seattle’s Russell Wilson from the rest of the field.

After Sunday’s game, Kaepernick played down the notion that he has felt pressure.

“I have to go out and play football,” he said. “It’s a game at the end of the day; it’s not life or death. I play to win, I do everything I can to try to help this team win.”

Conversations about the effectiveness of Kaepernick’s style are an extension of a decades-old debate — in fact, I’d call it a feud — between the old-school pocket-presence America and a movement to be permanently liberated from the pocket. Truth is, the American pocket is collapsing.

I’m amused to hear retired N.F.L. players bemoan offensive linemen who never, or rarely, get into a three-point stance, or running backs who never learn to pass block, or spread-offense quarterbacks who cannot take the ball from under center. Bulletin: That is where the N.F.L. is headed, aided by rules that make the game offense friendly.

Brady and the Mannings, Peyton and the Giants’ Eli, are about all that is left of the pure pocket passers we once embraced.

Then there are shades of gray and a desire to have it both ways. The Cowboys’ Tony Romo, who has not sniffed Super Bowl excitement, is lionized for his improvisational skills. Rodgers is praised for his moves in the pocket. Yet Wilson, who led his team to two Super Bowls and was a handoff away from a second ring, has been explained away as a mere game manager who benefits from a great defense.

Kaepernick is often dismissed as a one- or two-hit wonder.

“He is one of the most gifted quarterbacks in the league,” the quarterback guru George Whitfield said.

Whitfield, who runs an academy for quarterbacks, has worked with young players like Cam Newton, Luck, Manziel and the Tennessee Titans rookie Marcus Mariota.

In a league that makes adjustments to innovation from quarter to quarter, even series to series, Kaepernick has to evolve.

“That may mean being confident in what you’re doing personally and knowing the areas in which you’re going to have to continue to amp up,” Whitfield said.

I’m intrigued by the early conversations fluttering around Mariota, who rose to stardom at Oregon because of his ability to run and pass. He is praised because, after four games, he has thrown just three interceptions and run only 10 times. He has been sacked 14 times, however, and it’s not even winter.

There are gifts, and there are learned skills.

Kaepernick led the 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2012 during his first season as a starter; in 2013, he led San Francisco to the N.F.C. championship, but a potential game-winning pass was intercepted in the end zone by the Seahawks.

Last season, Kaepernick signed a contract extension worth up to $126 million, with $13 million guaranteed. After Sunday night’s game against the Giants, he had thrown just four touchdown passes and had been intercepted five times and sacked 16 times.

Despite losing to the Giants on a night when Eli Manning turned in one of the best performances of his career, Kaepernick conceded that his performance Sunday was a step in the right direction. “It’s good offensively to get in a rhythm like that, it’s something we can build off, moving forward, but we have to win games,” Kaepernick said. “That’s why we play.”

My advice to Kaepernick is to do what you did in New York on Sunday night. Hone your skills but hang on dearly to the gifts that so many of your critics would die for. Go back to doing what catapulted you to stardom in the N.F.L.

Run wisely. Run to daylight.

Email: wcr@nytimes.com

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D7 of the New York edition with the headline: San Francisco’s Kaepernick Needs to Ignore the Calls to Adjust His Game . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe